The present invention comprises a new and distinct variety of trident maple (Acer buergeranum), referred to by the varietal name `Abtir`.
The parent tree of the new variety was discovered in a nursery in Athens, Ga., among a group of random open-pollinated trident maple seedlings growing from seed collected in Decatur, Ga. This group of seedlings was grown as liners then transplanted to field spacing.
Trident maple seedling trees are extremely variable in growth habit, leaf, and bark characteristics. Seedling-grown material is often open and unkempt, characteristics that typically limit the attractiveness of the plants in landscaping applications.
The parent tree was observed to have superb grayed-purple colored fall foliage and exhibited multi-colored grayed-orange exfoliating bark. The trunk developed an attractive irregular fluted shape. The parent tree grew at a rapid rate, yet maintained a dense framework of branches and leaves, resulting from the more closely spaced nodes and greater multiple breaks from the new shoot growth of the season.
This invention has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. However, the following combination of traits have been repeatedly observed in asexually propagated progeny and are determined to be the basic characteristics of this invention, which in combination distinguish this variety of trident maple as a new and distinct variety: (1) rapid growth; (2) early exfoliating bark; (3) lustrous dark green summer foliage; (4) and superb grayed-purple fall foliage. The new variety is readily identified as trident maple by the uniformity of these characteristics. To the inventor's knowledge, this combination of characteristics distinguish this new variety from all other varieties of trident maple of which I am aware.
Asexual reproduction of this new variety has initially and subsequently been accomplished at my direction in Oconee County, Ga. Firm-wood, four to six inch long cuttings were treated with 10,000 ppm naphtheneacetic acid dissolved in 50% alcohol. The cuttings were placed in horticultural grade perlite in four inch deep flats on a greenhouse bench under intermittent mist. Rooting occurred in six to ten weeks at a 40% to 60% success rate. The above-mentioned unique features are stable and reproduce true to type in each successive propagation.